Jack Taylor
Jack Taylor is a Nosferatu drifter, and one of the members of a coterie that currently includes Nick, Derrick, Collette, James (his sire), and Jeffery. Although a loner by nature, Jack is a member of the Carthian Covenant. He aided in the revolution to overthrow Fabienne and establish a new democratic regime among Kindred society in Portland. Due to his Nosferatu curse, anyone who stares at Jack perceives his skin as rotting and falling off; glancing away causes this process to repeat anew in a horrific cycle. With a vicious temper, alcohol addiction, and questionable morality, Jack is a wild card in the coterie that is sometimes viewed as a liability, despite his fierce loyalty and powerful survival instincts. Background 'Early Childhood' Jack was born on August 31, 1981 to a lower-middle class in San Francisco. His father, Robert, worked a dead-end job for corporate America; his mother, Nora, was a house cleaner. Jack had one younger sister, Allison. Life in the Taylor family was hard, but pleasant. From the first time he picked up a guitar, Jack had a gift for music. He aspired to be a famous musician, much to his father's delight. As a teenager, Jack delved into the music scene in San Francisco, and he started a band with some of his high school friends. Although Jack loved being a musician, he quickly found himself flirting with a lifestyle that his parents did not approve of. Jack's father caught wind of his growing problems with alcohol, pot, and more serious drugs, and he gave Jack hell for it. After work conflict at Robert's work drove a wedge between him and Nora, they divorced, and Jack became mostly independent. He saved up his money from solo gigs and bought his own Fender Stratocaster, the guitar he still owns today. Living on his own, Jack frequently got into fist fights over stupid drama with other teenagers, mostly when drunk or high. He somehow managed to keep a part-time job working at a music store selling and repairing guitars; between this job and solo gigs, he made a decent living. For the time being, life was good. 'Fall into Darkness' Jack met a Kindred for the first time when he was 23 years old. Elizabeth, a blonde bombshell Daeva, became interested in Jack after one of his solo gigs at a popular bar in San Francisco. Jack found himself uncontrollably enamored with Elizabeth; for unknown reasons, he found himself doing whatever he needed to in order to please her every whim. She eventually revealed to him, to his surprise, that she was a vampire. Her blood gave him a rush stronger than anything he had ever tried or imagined, and he would do anything for even a drop to sample. It did not take Jack long to realize that Elizabeth had turned him into her slave. She used him as a toy to satisfy her every whim, socially and physically. Jack tried to break free from the "spell" she had over him, to Elizabeth's amusement. Over time, his life fell apart and became estranged from his family and friends, with one notable exception: his sister, Allison, continued to stay in contact with him because she cared for his well-being. After one year, Elizabeth suddenly grew bored of Jack and disappeared from his life without warning. She left him broken, addicted to vitae, without a home or a dollar to his name. The worst part for Jack was that he had limited memory of Elizabeth, as she had Dominated him to crudely rip away most of his memories of her. Fragments of his memories for that year came back to him in fits over the next few weeks. He only remembers her face, that she is a Kindred, and that she turned him from an aspiring guitar prodigy to a lifeless husk of a man. He harbors the utmost hatred for her. 'Portland and the Embrace' Without a ready source of vitae, Jack turned to mundane methods -- primarily alcohol and cocaine -- to try and get a fix. With no money, no job, and no stable living, Jack became homeless and pickpocketed on the streets to get by. Due to the artificial love he still harbored for Elizabeth through the Vinculum, he spent each night hopelessly waiting for her to return while simultaneously harboring a furious desire to kill her. The Vinculum weakened and faded over the next year; without tasting vitae, he slowly started to resist its effects. In an effort to break free from his chains and start a new life for himself, Jack became a drifter and hitchhiked north across the west coast. He eventually found himself in Portland, where he was able to pick up a new part-time job at a guitar shop. His steady but limited income fueled his alcohol addiction, although he (mostly) managed to cut back or stop his coke addiction altogether. After six months of living on the streets in Portland, Jack crossed paths with the other members of the coterie. For unknown reasons, James invited Jack to his home and subsequently Embraced him, ironically forcing Jack into the very lifestyle he had fled San Francisco to avoid. 'Present Day' As a Nosferatu, Jack's Kindred abilities have primarily manifested as expertise with the Nightmare and Obfuscate disciplines, but he has growing mastery of Vigor, Resilience, and Celerity. He obtained rudimentary knowledge of Dominate by diablerizing a Kindred during the coterie's mission in Vancouver to rescue Nick. Jack spends most of his time hidden from view when interacting with kine, except when he is using them as pawns or trying to terrify them. Jack has seemingly followed after his sire's footsteps and fallen into a downward spiral of immoral behavior. He has killed several humans, some in accident during Wassail, but more recently out of apathy for human life. He has enslaved nearly a dozen humans in the way Elizabeth treated him. Some may even question his loyalty to his coterie, pointing out the possibility that he views them as nothing more than insurance policies. Nevertheless, Jack is generally at least conversational, perhaps even friendly, towards them -- for now. Recently, in response to an unspecified provocation, some Nosferatu attacked Jack's haven at the Pitzen's home, forcefully Embraced his thralls, and destroyed the home with explosives. During the next evening, after discovering his ruined Fender Stratocaster, Jack intentionally tortured the police officer watching over the rubble. This breach of the Masquerade sparked a chain of events that led Jack to be brought before Kindred court and ultimately sentenced to a full Vinculum to Luthor Kent, the Nosferatu Primogen. Earning this sentence, rather than the alternative exile or Final Death, required securing Sebastian's vote in exchange for a life debt. Jack is currently reeling from this unfortunate chain of events, including the revelation that almost all of his old thralls are now Nosferatu and apparently residing in the clan hideout in the Portland sewers. Unsure of how he feels about being blood-bonded to a dangerous Nosferatu and permanently indebeted to a powerful madman, he is desperately trying to think about ways to turn his current situation to his advantage. Success in those endeavors will require mending his poor relationships with members of the coterie, if such a thing is even possible at this point... Thralls (Full Vinculum) *Jenny Foreman Goals See Jack's Character Goals for details. Category:People